'Adaptation is a Human Trait'

There’s probably some evolutionary backstory to this belief that we culturally ratchet up or down. The environmental change we’re experiencing now is regrettable and certainly un-necessary. But it’s probably more accurate to say environmental change is an innate human experience. Not something unique to me or you. 

Our ancestors migrated due to droughts and volcanic eruptions produced little ice ages. Our history has more than one example of droughts that lasted centuries causing entire civilizations to migrate. And though this climate change has elements that separate it from previous ones, like its global scale and the fact that it’s caused by us humans. 

It’s important to remember that change and adaption are ingrained in our existence. As long as today’s problems are framed as unique, we’ll likely be arguing, promoting and competing to provide a right answer. 

If you like pop culture movies, the idea of the multiverse is becoming very popular. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or Everything Everywhere All at Once. Cynically, I assume this is just a clever device to maximize movie spinoffs, but I can’t help but assume it also resides somewhere in our larger zeitgeist. 

An idea that a million versions of humanity’s present and future exist simultaneously right now. If we could see them all, maybe more than just a few, how would we live knowing they are all there? 

The multiverse of TV and movies isn’t just a counterpoint to uniqueness. It also shows an infinitude of histories that got people, events and planet remarkably close to the same spot you recognize now. Familiar but different. 

What lies ahead of us will also be familiar, but ultimately different. This doesn’t downplay the importance of decision making. Some choices made will be better for earth and humanity than others. But the belief in uniqueness of our situation sets up the future as answerable. A right one and a wrong one. When instead it is probably best to think of our future as having a rather wide spectrum of suitable outcomes. 

As a counter balance to the calls for scientific, technological or political answers is a practice of ​‘Radical Imagination’. Less a technique or pursuit for solutions and more a state of existence. A counterpoint to grand plans. Continuously speculating, communicating, inhabiting and revising a multitude of very near futures. 

What would it mean to live within, between or is it around a multiverse? Working to hold all those multitudes simultaneously might serve us well moving forward. I like to think what you’ll see here with Night White Skies going forward is one form of this approach.